Re: Re: Motif vs. GTK+

[Melvin Hadasht <melvin hadasht free fr>]

> Better support, better portability, better internationalisation, much better 
>looking, better font rendering, much faster, *much* better API, wide 
>range of language bindings, themeable, more widely used, better tool 
>chain, active development community, much more comprehensive 
>supporting libraries, the list goes on and on. 

I agree with all but one of these. Most important features being 
internationalisation (motif needed special support for left to right scripts, IIRC. In LTR locales, the GUI layout is automatically adapted by Gtk), object 
oriented design, Win32 support, accessibility. Moreover, with Gnome, 
it is easier to develop programs that collaborate closely with other programs (Bonobo). You also have quasi direct access to developers and the 
Gtk app devel list are very helpful. Other Gtk applications are open source 
in majority, so if you need to learn by examples, you will in general find
the examples you find on real apps.

But I do not agree with "much faster", if with that is meant the "user 
interactivity, displaying widgets, scrolling". Even if AA is not enabled, and the 
default theme is used, Motif is faster. But on modern hardware (1Ghz and 
more CPU), the difference may not be visible and the relative slowness is
not felt. On old hardware (266Mhz), the relative slowness is 
visible, but is still really useable. Gtk1.2 had the same responsiveness compared to Motif, but Gtk2.x is slower.

-- 
Melvin Hadasht